Storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Shelf in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Shelf in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Shelf in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Shelf in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Shelf in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Shelf in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Gloves left behind by police in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Gloves left behind by police in storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of Jason Sanchez in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Jason Sanchez stands in the storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of he lives in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Jason Sanchez stands in the storage area where chemicals were found by police in the apartment building of he lives in Delmar, NY on December 6, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Chemicals safe, suspect says

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BETHLEHEM -- In a fluorescent-lit aisle at Lowe's, Jason Sanchez pointed to a gallon of Klean-Strip acetone, on sale for $16.98. Next to it was a container of xylene, $18.48. "That's the exact one I had," he said.

On Sunday evening, Sanchez, 24, whipped through the Route 9 store in Glenmont with the familiarity of an employee, gesturing to chemicals that had been in the basement of his Delmar apartment building -- until he was arrested Nov. 30.

Sanchez faces felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with the trove of chemicals that police say posed "a grave risk of death" to residents of the Cherry Arms apartment complex on Delaware Avenue.

Town police confiscated acetone, xylene, sulfuric acid, laboratory-grade nitric acid and butane, as well as a propane torch and a device described as a "commercial-grade vacuum chamber." Police have not revealed the chemicals' quantities, but indicated they were potentially explosive if combined.

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Yet in an exclusive interview with the Times Union, Sanchez said he "had nothing to hide." He said he used the chemicals primarily to clean the chamber for science experiments that posed no danger.

"Everything I had, I had legitimately and I was keeping there safely," said Sanchez, a doctoral candidate in computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Only an idiot would mix chemicals together. Everything was sealed and in their original containers."

He called the police response "an overreaction": "I can't help wonder if there is some ulterior motive."

Deputy Chief Timothy Beebe said Sanchez is not being targeted. "I have absolutely no basis to believe anything even remotely close to that has happened," he said. Police said they were alerted to the situation when an apartment tenant notified them of the vacuum chamber.

Sanchez's younger brother, Keenan Sanchez, was badly burned in a Dec. 19, 2009, chemical fire that consumed the family home at 151 Adams Place in Delmar. Police said the younger Sanchez, then 15, may have been handling chemicals in the basement. A police investigation into the fire remains at a standstill because the teen and his mother refuse to speak to them about it.

In the Times Union interview, Jason Sanchez refused to comment on the fire or his family because he said he did not know what happened last December. Neither he nor a third brother, Josh, were home at the time.

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In connection with the chemicals found last week, Sanchez is charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, a felony, as well as second-degree obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

On Sunday, the wiry and soft-spoken Sanchez was wearing thin-rimmed glasses cocked askew, a cellphone clipped to his jeans and a cap bearing the slogan for a brand of earphones: "the science of pure music."

Sanchez said the 500-pound vacuum chamber, which he bought used on eBay from a seller in Florida, was his attempt to replicate the effect of a device known as a Crookes radiometer. That device is a glass bulb with four vanes and a vacuum inside. When a light is shined on the vanes, they spin.

In July, Sanchez and Andrew Zonenberg, a 20-year-old RPI undergraduate, founded a computer development company called DrawerSteak Technologies LLC. Zonenberg said the vacuum chamber was part of a scientific experiment -- not a device to inflict harm.

Zonenberg said that Sanchez was "literally horrified" after the events last year, and made sure that in the office where they ran their business "everything had been stored properly."

Sanchez said he had kept no more than a gallon of each chemical in the basement. He said he used acetone and xylene to clean the chamber and paint spills, butane to attempt to liquefy a metal gasket for the chamber and the propane torch when the butane didn't work. He said the sulfuric acid came in a quart of Rooto Pro Drain Opener. All those supplies came from Lowe's, he said.

The half-cup of nitric acid was used to extract a microchip from its packaging, a project for DrawerSteak Technologies, LLC, Sanchez said. He said he bought it from DudaDiesel.com, a biodiesel supply website.

On Monday, Sanchez's storage area of the basement -- which has a lock on its door -- had an empty 2-foot-by-2-foot shelf space. He said that is where he stored the chemicals.

Sanchez said the chemicals had been there since the summer, when he moved in with his girlfriend, Autumn Horton, 27. The couple said they also used the basement to build a bunk bed for their two elementary-school-age daughters.

Sanchez said the chamber had been there since roughly the beginning of November, when he moved it from a room in Troy that is undergoing renovation. Efforts to reach the building's landlord Monday were unsuccessful.

"I understand that people don't know everything that can be purchased," Sanchez said. But "if somebody thought this would be dangerous, they could come up to my apartment and say, 'Hey Jason, what are you doing?' I expected the courtesy of an explanation before calling 911, and I didn't really get that."

Sanchez's preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 21 in Bethlehem Town Court. He said he is taking next semester at RPI off so he can pay his attorney.